Drag readings are harmless for small children – anyone demanding a ban is dangerous

Killian Martin

It has long been foreseen that I would write this comment. Now the time has come, because right-wing extremist circles are currently calling for a protest against a transvestite lecture for children in Oerlikon.

I’ve never understood why people discriminate against others because of their sexuality. After all the achievements of recent years, it seems to be becoming the global trend again to take action against the LGBTQ+ community with prohibitions.

The latest developments in Africa are devastating. In more than 30 countries on the continent, homosexuals are threatened with imprisonment, in Somalia and soon in Uganda even with the death penalty (!).

But also in the US, the self-proclaimed “land of the free”, 492 anti-trans laws were introduced this year. Most are said to ban drag shows. Along with the awakened debate, drag is the new enemy of conservative America. Especially when it comes to children.

In America, drag shows are seen by conservatives as a greater danger to children than guns. Actually, this circumstance should open the eyes of all politicians to who is really dangerous in the “Woke” debate. It is those who respond to equality with “woke madness” and want to introduce new prohibitions under this guise.

The US is not alone in this. Instead of realizing in Europe what is wrong in America, the same politics are looming here as well, demanding discriminatory laws for LGBTQ+. And thus paves the way for new hatred.

The latest developments in Germany are examples of this. A planned drag reading for children in Munich is currently the subject of heated debate.

Although it is not the intention that the event will take place for the first time, politics has now interfered. Parties from left to right express their displeasure, the CSU even called for a state “towing ban”. The former CDU Minister of Family and Youth, Kristina Schröder, also said in addition to «Bild»: «I am reminded of the 1980s, when there were attempts to play down pedophilia, to present the taboo as tense. A terrible mistake! And again, we adults are bringing our sexuality to children.”

You need to let this statement sink in for a while. But what other arguments do the critics have?

The sharpest accusation revolves around “queer identity politics” being pursued with drag readings for children. Politicians and certain media justify this with the fact that the organizers write on their website that they want to take children to colorful worlds “that show what life has in store for you, regardless of gender”.

In particular, stories of “boys in dresses and princesses with a mind of their own” are read. According to the critics, this “questions or dissolves the gender dichotomy”. The “NZZ” even wrote that this threatens the well-being of children, also because childish stories focus on gender.

But let’s turn the tables: by this logic, it would also be fair to say that stories about relationships between men and women also focus on gender and that a certain “sexuality is introduced to the children” – namely heterosexuality. It’s a twisted idea that kids question their own sexuality as soon as they meet a drag queen. The same does not happen when they meet a heteronormative man.

There are no scientific studies to substantiate the critics’ accusations, as several research child psychologists confirm when asked. They all make it clear that drag shows wouldn’t tempt kids into wanting to become one themselves. The same applies to contacts with homosexuals – children do not become gay or lesbian as a result. You don’t become homosexual, you are – or you aren’t.

So a drag reading for children has nothing to do with activist sex education, but with inclusion. Stories about girls in menswear stimulate children’s imaginations, as do fairy tales about wolves disguising themselves as grandmothers. Just because a boy wants to wear a skirt doesn’t make him a drag queen.

Drag readings can help break down prejudices and stereotypes by emphasizing people’s diversity. That’s a good approach.

Last but not least, the accusation that the drag actors’ usually vulgar names sexualize children is murky. In Munich, the drag king is called “Eric Big Clit” (Eric’s big clitoris).

But children can abstract that, the child psychologists assured me. And if they do ask parents what “big clit” means, parents can still decide for themselves how explicit their answer is.

Many would probably choose to explain to children what the female gender is and what a clitoris stands for. After all, the clitoris is just as much a part of a woman’s body as her eyes or her nipples, and they are not taboo if the child asks about them. These terms and drag shows are not sexualized by the children, but by the adults.

Whoever demands a towing ban is not doing it for the children. But for your own twisted worldview. But one should not forget that discrimination breeds hatred. Therefore, a shot against drag readings will turn out to be an own goal.